The foremost orator of Rome, until his fame was far eclipsed by Cicero, was Q. I forlensius llortalus (or Ortalus, B.C. 114-50), who, like many of his predecessors, published his speeches; these, however, are not. preserved. Ile was ad dicted to the florid style of Asiatic oratory. lle and Cicero were good friends. though often op ponents in court and in polities. And this brings us to Marcus Tullius Cle) (n.c. 106-43), the greatest name in all Latin literature, as well as the foremost statesman of his time. lie was such a master of style that his works have remained a model for succeeding ages. Born at the village of Andaman. of equestrian rank, he early came to Rome, and devoted himself to the study of rheto ric. With remarkable boldness the young man courted the hostility of the dictator Sulfa by undertaking and carrying through successfully the defense of Sextins Rosen's, of Ameria, on a charge of parricide. The speech is extant. Real izing the need of further study, he spent two years (me. 79-77) in Greece and Asia Minor, and upon his return to Rome threw himself heartily into the life of the metropolis. lie cul tivated a style of delivery midway between that of extreme simplicity and that of rhetorical adornment so popular with his contemporaries. Though a norns homo—for none of his ancestors had held public office—he beeame qmrstor in B.C. 75, eurule twine in 69, prador urhanus in 66, and finally. in 63. reached the consulship. the height of his political ambition. As qucestor in Sicily, he became aware of the corrupt and tyrannical rule of Verres. the Governor of that province, whom he impeached in six masterly orations that, happily. are still preserved. In polities Cicero allied himself with the aristocratic party. at whose head was Cu. Pompey. and was instru mental in securing for him the sovereign earn mand in the East by the 1\lanilian Law in n.c. 66, his speech in favor of which is among the extant orations. The acme of his oratorical ca reer was attained in the year of his consulship by the suppression of Catiliue's conspiracy (u.c. 63). Of the four Catilinarian orations, two were delivered before the Senate and two to the people in the Forum. Nor were his orations confined wholly to political cases and criminal trials. In n.c. 62 he undertook the defense of the poet Archias, a Greek of Heraclea in Southern Italy, in his claim to Boman citizenship: and this gave Cicero an opportunity of expressing his keen in terest in and love of poetry, of which the speech is a rather declamatory eulogy. in it.c. 58, through the nmehinations of his political enemies, and particularly of the notorious P. Clodius. he was banished from Italy, and spent a miserable year in exile at Thessalonica and Dyrrhachium. His return in 57 is marked by four orations, Post llcditunt, offering, thanks to the Senate and people of [tome, and discussing the question of his house, which had been contiseated and de stroyed. The following years saw the publication of a number of speeches, which it is not neces sary to name here. His last important efforts in oratory were the fourteen so-called Philippics, violent personal invectives directed against An tonius, which led to the disgraceful murder of Cicero in n.e. 43. We possess fifty-seven of Cieero's orations. with fragments of twenty more, and the titles of thirty that are lost.
It is not only as a consummate orator. how ever, that Cicero stands high in the world of letters. Indeed, much of his fame rests on his more purely literary work. He was an essayist, a philosopher, a letter-writer, and, if not a poet, at least a versifier. His earlier rhetorical and philosophical studies were pursued as an aid to perfection in oratory: but in his riper years his leisure time was devoted to writing, and the number of his literary essays attests his indus try and omnivorous reading. and his facility with the pen. Already as a young man he wrote an essay known as In•torica. or De lnrentione, in two books. It was after his return from exile. however. when the uncertain state of political af fairs led him to seek rest and refreshment in study and writing, that he put forth his greatest rhetorical work, the be Oratores perhaps the most careful and finished of all his writings. It
is an imaginary dialogue, in three books. between the former orators Crassus and Antonia:. sup posed to have taken place in B.C. 91. The point of view of the debaters is Cicero's own: he was particularly fond of the dialogue form of essay, and used it also in other works, as in the Brutus. de Claris O•atorilms, published in B.C. 46—a his tory of oratory down to his OWIl tinie, with in teresting, sketches of almost two hundred Roman orators. In the same year appeared his Orator, dedicated to AI. Brutus. This work sums up Cicero's ideal of what an orator should be. Ilk other rhetorical works. Partitiones (Iratoria• 'Alden. and I) e °mini° Benere Orotorum, are of lesser importance. The philosophical essays are more numerous. In philosophy Cicero was an eclectic, with a decided bias toward the New Academy. Ile sympathized with the Stoics and was repelled by the Epicureans. philosophic works show a fine perfection of style and a won derful adaptation of the Latin language to the niceties of thought. but display no very profound study, and are careless in citation and in the treatment of his authorities. We notice only the more important : (1) De Re l'uldica, a dialogue planned on the lines of Plato's Reim/die, written in BA:. 54. Only about a third of the work is preserved. (2) De Leyibus, never completed, also based on Plato. Three entire books are ex tant. (3) be Bonorum Malorum. in live books (u.c. 45), a discussion of the Greek ideas of good and evil. it is in many respects the linest of Ci•ero's philosophic essay-. (4) Tuscubtn Disputations tn.c. 45-44), imaginary conversations at Cieero's country house at Tus culum, in five books, dedicated to Brutus. (5) Uc Noturo (B.C. 44), au exposition of the value of religion. (6) Cato „Valor or Do Sem el ute 113.C. 44), a very interesting essay on old age. The argument is put into the mouth of old :\lareas Cato (see above), who expound- the beauties Of old age to Scipio and Lanus. ) ',alit's, or To imieitia ((Lc. 441. a similar dis •ussion of friendship by the younger La•ins and his two sons-in-law. 18) (p.c. 44 I, a discussion of moral and political duties. ad dressed to Cicero's Sin Marcus.
The of Cicero occupies a unique place in Latin literature. We have other Latin letters. but none so sponta neous. so sincerely the expression of the writer's thoughts and moods without regard to the public or the future, none that disclose so completely the intimate thoughts and emotions of a great intellect, none that af ford so clear an insight into the real life of the Roman world at one of the most critical and in teresting periods of its history. llere we see Cicero the man. in strength and weakness, in suc cess and failure, in public life and with family and friends, as writer and thinker, as wit and connoisseur. Here. too, we may gain an idea of the colloquial Latin of the Boman gentleman. as contrasted with the more elegant but less elastic diction of literature.
The greatest genius of the ancient world, the statesman. general. orator. student. and writer C. Julius l'a•sar ((Lc. 100-44). exercised but a minor influence upon Latin literature as com pared with Cicero. yet hi- ntarii de Bello Gallico have always been a model of Latinity for simplicity and clearness of style. straightforward ness of narrative, and utter absence of -elf praise. though the writer was at the same time the hero of his story. The book makes no pre tensions to icing an elaborate history: it is mere ly the 'memoir-' of the seven campaigns in Gaul 1 uses 52). written by the general-in-chief dur ing the long idle hours in winter quarters after the crushing of Vereingetorix. Cesar also pre pa•ed an account of the civil wars, which was published after his death. from the manuscript draft which he had never carefully revised. His army officers. men of little or no literary ability, followed their gifted leader also into the domain of history. Aida: Hirtius, one of his legati. added an eighth book to the and the Alexandrian, African. and Spanish campaigns were written up by other Akers These works are decidedly inferior in style. lang.uage, and ac curacy to Ca•sar's. The •Memoirs• are the only works of Ca-ar that have survived.